Obama tells town 'These Tragedies Must End'

New York Times

Updated 6:30 am, Monday, December 17, 2012

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NEWTOWN, CT - DECEMBER 16: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at an interfaith vigil for the shooting victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 16, 2012 at Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were shot dead, including twenty children, after a gunman identified as Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lanza also reportedly had committed suicide at the scene. A 28th person, believed to be Nancy Lanza, found dead in a house in town, was also believed to have been shot by Adam Lanza.

Residents wait for the start of an interfaith vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday and opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Residents wait for the start of an interfaith vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn. A gunman walked into Sandy Hook

NEWTOWN, Conn. — President Barack Obama traveled to this bereaved town Sunday evening and chided the nation for having not done enough to protect its children, saying the country has to act to prevent such tragedies in the future.

“We can't tolerate this anymore,” he said. “These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.”

Obama said he will use the power of his office to confront the spate of shootings that has claimed so many lives, many of them children. He was not specific, but he made it clear that he will pursue change in the face of political opposition that has stopped new gun laws for years.

“I'll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens,” he said, “in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. Because what choice do we have?”

Obama said the nation is failing at what he called “our first task,” which he said was to care for the children of the nation.

“It's our first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything right,” he said.

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“Can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we are doing enough to keep our children — all of them — safe from harm?”

Obama asked whether the nation is doing enough to give all children a chance at a good life with “happiness and with purpose.”

“If we are honest with ourselves, the answer is no,” he said. “We are not doing enough, and we will have to change.”

In a high school auditorium that might one day have showcased the musical performances of the children cut down at the Sandy Hook Elementary School nearby, the president listened as clergy offered prayers for the 27 people who were killed, 20 of them young children.

For Obama, the past three days have been an extraordinary moment of his presidency: one marked by the grief of his reaction at the White House on Friday and the tantalizing but vague suggestion that he might confront the scourge of gun violence.

The service came as new details emerged about the terrifying moments at the elementary school Friday that shocked the nation. Authorities said Sunday that the gunman, Adam Lanza, shot his mother multiple times in the head before his rampage at the school and that he still had hundreds of rounds left when he killed himself. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said Lanza shot himself as police were closing in, suggesting that he might have intended to take more lives had he not been interrupted.

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The president's trip here came amid rising pressure to push for tighter regulation of guns in America. While aides tried to deflect that by saying it was a day for mourning, the streets outside the memorial service and the airwaves across the nation were filled with voices calling for legislative action. By contrast, the National Rifle Association and its most prominent supporters in Congress were largely absent from the public debate.

“These events are happening more frequently,” Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said here before the service began, “and I worry that if we don't take a thoughtful look at them, we're going to lose the pain, the hurt and the anger that we have now.”

Lieberman, who is retiring, called for a national commission on mass violence, the reinstatement of a ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004 and tighter background checks on gun purchasers.

“If you go to a gun show, or buy a gun from some antique dealer, you're not checked at all,” he said.

The state's other leaders added their endorsements of more laws.

“I'm hearing from the community, as well as my colleagues in law enforcement, we need to do something,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said on “This Week” on ABC.

Malloy said on CBS' “Face the Nation” that when someone can burst into a building with “clips of up to 30 rounds on a weapon that can almost instantaneously fire those, you have to start to question whether assault weapons should be allowed to be distributed the way they are in the United States.”

The grieving in this small New England town added emotional energy to an escalating debate about the role of firearms in the U.S. The calls for more gun control that typically follow such events have evolved this time into particular pressure on a newly re-elected Democratic president who has largely avoided the issue during four years in the White House.

The NRA's headquarters was closed Sunday, and a spokesman could not be reached.

Robert Levy, chairman of the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute and one of the organizers behind a Supreme Court case that enshrined a Second Amendment individual right to own guns, said Sunday that with more than 250 million guns in circulation in the U.S., restrictions on new guns would make little difference.